Is Clinical Virtual Reality the Future of Therapy?

Out with the couch, on with the headset.

As the meteors came down from the sky, my heart thudded in my chest. There was only one way I could save the town below: Reach out into the air, make a fist, and in doing so, set off an explosion. And then another. And another. How else can one be expected to defend a village?

This was the task given to me by Alex Miller, a computer scientist creating virtual realities for the neurology department at the University of Pennsylvania. Under the guidance of Dr. Branch Coslett, Miller’s lab is making programs for stroke victims trying to regain the use of a limb, amputees trying to lose phantom limb pain, and other people with mysterious, hard-to-heal conditions of the body and brain.

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Our goal is to understand the principles of Perception, Action and Learning in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems